Every day, I speak with retailers who are planning to launch and/or scale their product video program and they have questions about best practices. They want to know how to set up their studio, which products to include in their first flight of videos and what style seems to work the best. The most common question I hear pertains to video length: everybody wants to know if there is a perfect duration for a product video.

Thankfully, Liveclicker has the most expansive warehouse of video commerce data in the world. We are equipped to answer product video length questions better than anyone because we track more than a billion video impressions every year. As an organization that was founded by guys who previously led a web analytics company, Liveclicker is passionate about helping retailers prove the effectiveness of their video programs. We were the first company to offer in-depth video engagement tracking, content analysis, search engine optimization reporting, side-by-side video comparisons and video-to-conversion analysis.

Today, Liveclicker proudly released a series of next-generation video commerce analytics called "Custom Insight" which allow ecommerce professionals to perform in-depth ad hoc drill-downs. Let's say our customer OnlineShoes.com wants to compare the conversion rate of 45-60 second videos hosted by female presenters with 45-60 second videos hosted by male presenters. They will be able to do that within seconds. If our customer Petco wants to compare the dollars-per-video-view of their dog videos with their cat videos, that will be easy to do. When our customer Advance Auto Parts wants to analyze the average order size generated by their educational videos on Facebook as opposed to the ones shown on advanceautoparts.com, they will be able to include data from any historical period of time. Liveclicker customers will have access to unparalleled ad hoc reporting not offered by any other video solution on the market. Additionally, Liveclicker has always partnered with leading web analytics companies like Omniture, Coremetrics and Google Analytics to allow its customers to integrate our data with their measurement of other online marketing initiatives.

With data like this, it is also possible for Liveclicker to draw macromarketing conclusions by aggregating and benchmarking multiple retailers together.  As an example, I did some initial analysis which incorporated the data from more than 50,000,000 views of 6,694 product videos for 25 well-known retailers during the past 90 days.  I then drilled down on four segments within the mountain of data:

• Videos where more than 75% of the viewers watched until completion
• Videos where less than 5% of the viewers watched until completion
• Videos where a purchase was made after they were viewed
• Videos where a purchase was not made after they were viewed

There were some obvious confirmations that arose. For example, we would all suspect that the low-engagement videos would be longer than the high-engagement videos. That goes without saying. However, there are dozens of more specific questions that can be answered with this type of analysis:

• Exactly how much longer were the low engagement videos? 85 seconds - 1:54 as opposed to 0:29.
• Were people less likely to even click the play button on longer videos than on shorter ones? Yes, people were more than four times as likely to play a video which is 30 seconds or less than one that is more than 90 seconds long.
• Did viewers abandon these videos right away, once they noticed how long they were? No, actually more of them watched at least 10 seconds of the video than their high completion counterparts.
• Did the abandoned videos drive lower conversion rates than the full completion ones? Yes, the completed videos were 22% more likely to lead to a conversion than the abandoned ones, but the conversion rate for the abandoned videos was still surprisingly high. In many cases, a viewer stops watching a video because he/she is ready to make a purchase.

I also broke down the videos into time ranges and analyzed the conversion rates and dollars-per-play of each group. While the 30-second videos were excellent for engagement (often retaining viewers for full completion), it was the 60-90 second videos which yielded the highest conversion rates and revenue numbers. Amongst the videos that did not lead to a conversion, most of them were less than 60 seconds long. Thus, engagement and conversion rate are not always related, which proves that retailers need to have both types of reporting at their fingertips.

Obviously, the type, cost and complexity of a product are all determining factors in the ideal length of its explanatory video. Also, educational videos can be much longer than product demonstration videos, and branding videos can differ from those found on product pages. I also firmly believe that viewers' attention spans during 2008-2011 will be longer and more patient than in 2012-2015, when their tolerance for uninformative content will decrease. Simply put, that high performing 1:24 video might need to be trimmed to 0:40 a year or two from now.

In the coming weeks, I will reveal some more detailed and actionable findings from Liveclicker's Custom Insight reports. As the hosts of the annual Video Commerce Summit and the leaders in video commerce, we have always been excited about sharing our subject matter expertise with retailers who appreciate the value of video.

Five Essential Video Commerce Reports

It seems clear that 2012 will be the year of video commerce. Every day, we meet with retailers who are planning to launch or develop their product video program next year. In many cases, they have anecdotal evidence that videos will improve user experience and conversion rates, but they want to make a case to their senior leadership team to prove their theory.

At Liveclicker, we have been surrounded by convincing data for the past four years. We know, without a doubt, that a video program will catalyze increases in site traffic, elevated conversion rates, improvements in average order size and boosts in revenue for a wide spectrum of retailers. We have found that video is, hands-down, one of the most powerful developments in ecommerce history. Unfortunately, most retailers don't have the necessary tracking capabilities to prove what is working or to hone the things that aren't working. They measure their program by the number of video views they accumulate or by conducting a rudimentary before-and-after A/B test of their website's productivity. Although both of those metrics are interesting, they provide indirect evidence, at best. Below are five reports that every retailer needs to properly track and optimize their video program over time.

1) Video-to-Conversion Analysis

With the exception of branding videos, educational videos and others, the lion's share of a retailer's video library will be about the products they sell. Thus, the best way to measure the effectiveness of these types of videos would be to track the impact that they have on revenue acquisition. It seems like a simple concept to conduct an A/B test where the control group is a static image (or nothing at all) and the variable is a product video. Then, performance indicators like conversion rate, units per order, cross sells or average order size can be used to ascertain the value of the video program.

Liveclicker provides revenue tracking on each video as well as integration with Omniture, Coremetrics and Google Analytics. This type of reporting provides valuable context to the measurement of the video program as well as justification for the expansion of video production and distribution. The report below shows actual data from a Liveclicker customer (with video titles blurred for anonymity). If you knew you could product a video that would generate more than $1,000,000 in three months, would that become your highest ecommere priority?

 

2) Video Distribution Report

One of the biggest benefits that can be derived from a video program is the uptick in site traffic that results from distributing videos across the Internet. Of course, as with any acquisition initiative, it is important to measure which distribution channel is driving the most traffic. Furthermore, it is helpful to understand the differences in behavior (visit duration, visit frequency, conversion rate, average order size) which can be predicted based on the referring site. For example, do you know if YouTube is actually driving traffic or conversions on your website? Do you know if your Facebook referrals behave any differently from your Commission Junction referrals? These nuances which affect the future strategy of your program are found in the Video Distribution Report:

 

3) Video Engagement and Fallout Analysis

Video production, no matter how efficient, can be both time and resource intensive. However, nothing is more costly than producing videos that don't work. How are you measuring the engagement of your viewers? Do you know when they are dropping off? More importantly, do you know why they are dropping off? Simply knowing how many seconds into a video viewers progress doesn't tell the whole story. Are they leaving because of disinterest or are they proceeding to place an item in their shopping cart?

Also, context is important when it comes to engagement analysis. The results of one particular video's performance might be interesting, but it needs to be compared against other videos before a conclusion can be made about its effectiveness.

Overall, engagement analysis produces valuable metrics which can be used in the optimization of existing videos and the development of new ones.

 

4) Video SEO Reporting

Do you know which search engines and phrases are driving traffic to your videos? Are you optimizing your videos for search engines like Google and YouTube? Are your video thumbnails showing up in Google's blended search results?

Video can be a powerful tool in your SEO arsenal, but you have to be able to measure its effectiveness. Reports that show the number of visitors driven to your video library from each search engine and keyword/keyphrase are extremely helpful. Being able to follow the clickstream of those visits to prove the impact of video SEO on revenue is also an important measure of your program's effectiveness.

 

5) Content Detail Reporting

The fifth video commerce report which will help you dissect the performance of your program involves multi-dimensional content detail. What does that mean? It is the ability to pivot your analysis by any customizable dimension. For example, would you like to know which brand's videos are the most effective? What about the videos hosted by men versus women? Longer videos versus shorter videos? Educational videos versus product demonstrations? Children's apparel versus toys?

Having the ability to pivot your content detail reporting by any parameter is a crucial part of your web analytics solution. Shouldn't your video commerce metrics be just as easy to use?

Take your video commerce reports seriously

The rudimentary metrics which are found in free solutions (like YouTube) or basic video hosting solutions are interesting, but not actionable. In order to truly gauge the effectiveness of your program and to make changes that translate into conversions, keep your eye on reports like the ones described above.

During my dozen years of working with online retailers, I have always been perplexed by one thing:  Why is there so little direct feedback being solicited from each company’s customer base?  A simple source code investigation of any Internet Retailer Top 500 organization will uncover dozens of tracking tags to measure clickstream behavior.  Any vendor evaluation eventually focuses on the analytics which are offered, and most online marketing studies rely on data gathered by inference.

How often are you directly asking your customers what they think?  Crowdsourcing of ideas is certainly not a new concept.   Dell launched Ideastorm.com in February of 2007 in order to provide their customers with the ability to provide direct feedback and to augment or diminish the popularity of their peers’ submitted ideas.  Starbucks did something similar in 2008 with MyStarbucksIdea.com, which generated 70,000 ideas during its first year.  Both are great case studies in the solicitation of feedback from consumers in an organized format.

As you build your video program, are you doing the same thing?  You don’t have to have millions of customers and a beautiful website to get some feedback, though.  Today, it’s as easy as leveraging your social media.  Consider this simple poll which Utrecht Art Supplies posted for their 15,000+ Facebook fans in May:



Then, a few days later, they followed up with this Facebook post:



Beautiful execution.  Simple feedback solicitation which engages customers in the development of the video program without adding a penny to Utrecht’s costs.  Of course, a small investment can be made to inspire your customers to continue responding to questions.  For example, on Performance Bike’s Facebook page, Freebie Friday is celebrated every week.  There, they ask their 14,000+ fans a question and respondents are entered into a weekly drawing for a $20 gift card to Performance Bike.  Freebie Friday can be more easily accessed via a tab on their Facebook page.  If a free survey doesn’t yield the traction you were hoping for, an inexpensive gift card certainly will.

Of course, any analytics expert will tell you that you need a combination of aggregate data compilation/analysis and direct feedback via surveys.  I would certainly suggest the same.  However, for projects like a video program launch where you  would like some quick, anecdotal evidence while building some excitement amongst your customer base, your social media channels could be the perfect way to jumpstart your project.

 

On July 8th, I posted the details of a study I conducted on the YouTube practices of Internet Retailer Top 500 companies. Then, on July 14th, I posted a follow-up article explaining where YouTube fits in a video commerce program. Both posts make one point clear: YouTube is a valuable resource which should be leveraged by all retailers. The way in which the world's biggest video site should be used, though, will evolve as an eCommerce organization becomes more sophisticated over time. In both Part 1 and Part 2 of this three-part series, I mentioned that each retailer will eventually need to graduate to a third generation of YouTube usage, one where YouTube is just one of many video tools being leveraged. In this third generation, various video strategies are employed, including social media integration, affiliate network integration, ecommerce player interactivity, automated distribution, search engine optimization, in-depth analytics, etc. Within a comprehensive video program, YouTube is one of many important components that combine for maximum results. YouTube is an excellent solution for the hosting and serving of videos, and it offers some basic video player functionality like annotations, comments, sharing and multi-platform compatibility. However, it is not a solution tailored for retailers, and there are many missing features which can boost site traffic, conversion rates and average order size. Let's delve into some of the areas where a video commerce solution like Liveclicker can be an important upgrade from a YouTube-centric approach:

"Shoppable" Video Player

The YouTube video player provides some basic functionality which allows users to overlay annotations on a video, but it lacks many ecommerce-specific capabilities such as Buy Now buttons which direct viewers to product pages, integrated product ratings/reviews, pricing integration with the ecommerce platform, integrated cross-selling suggestions, integrated Facebook commenting, static/moving hotspots, and interactive product thumbnails. By bringing the entire shopping experience into the video player itself, conversion rates, average order size and total revenues are boosted. By stepping up to a video commerce solution like Liveclicker, retailers can integrate their video program with their ecommerce efforts.

In Part One of this three-part series, I explored the current YouTube practices of Internet Retailer's Top 500 companies.  In that analysis, I found that very few top retailers are leveraging YouTube as best as they can.  Most ecommerce organizations lack video content and they are not marketing those videos or driving viewers back to their product pages. Of course, it is not helpful to point out shortcomings without also exploring strategies for success. In this post, I will explain a retailer's three phases of development and where YouTube should fit into the mix.

First Generation - Denial

As I mentioned in Part One of this post, there are 76 Internet Retailer Top 500 companies who do not have a YouTube channel and another 84 which have posted less than 10 videos on the site. These retailers are focused on other marketing initiatives or simply have not yet embraced video for their organizations. Simply put, they are missing the boat by not at least leveraging YouTube. With 3 billion views per day and no hosting/marketing costs, YouTube is a no-brainer first step for every retailer.

Second Generation - YouTube-centric video program

In the second generation, a retailer has been able to source some content from its vendors and customers or it has taken the initiative to produce a few product videos. These companies might have just 10-20 videos and they simply want to be able to distribute them to YouTube while embedding a free video player on their website. This is the perfect occasion to sign up for a YouTube account, build some interactive annotations/links, and leverage free technology to lauch a product video program. There is no reason why every retailer, large and small, can't at least be in this second generation. By sourcing/creating a handful of videos and deploying them in their conversion funnel, retailers give themselves a chance to lift their site traffic, conversion rate and average order size while gathering valuable analytics. By giving Generation Two a chance, ecommerce organizations can build a healthy case for investing further in the video production and monetization that comes with Generation Three.

Third Generation - YouTube as a part of the marketing mix

Once a retailer builds the case proving that video is improving site traffic, conversions and/or revenue, it is time to invest more heavily in this medium. With that investment comes the sourcing and production of more video content and the distribution of video to more channels. A YouTube-centric second generation approach with 15 videos means that there are only 30 implementations (15 times on the ecommerce site and 15 times on YouTube) to manage. This can be done manually, even with limited resources. However, a comprehensive third generation approach might mean distributing those same 15 videos to affiliate networks (like Linkshare or Commission Junction), email campaigns, video libraries, additional video sites (like Vimeo or Viddler), ad channels, social media (like Facebook, Twitter or MySpace) and mobile phones (via QR codes or Microsoft Tags). Suddenly, 15 videos might have 150+ implementations, complex testing/optimization and a lot of associated analytics. It is time to invest in a video commerce platform. With a video commerce platform, the retailer is able to leverage technology to manage a more complex program, which can yield exponentially greater results. At Liveclicker, we serve tens of millions of video views each month, and we have built some compelling case studies for investing in a Generation Three program. Revenue on products with videos usually increases by 10-15%, site traffic rises 2-5%, conversion rates are boosted by at least 30% and average order size increases by 10-20%. Taking a methodical approach to video and working with a knowledgeable partner who can guide an ecommerce organization through this growth will pay off in dividends. Still, even with a more sophisticated third generation video program, YouTube is a critical marketing channel. Liveclicker makes sure to post its customers' videos on YouTube and to optimize titles/keywords/descriptions accordingly. Using YouTube's Promoted Videos solution and submitting sitemaps to Google are essential parts of the video marketing mix. Whether a retailer has 10 videos or boasts a library of 1,000, YouTube is an important component of a healthy video program. In Part Three, I will list the benefits which a retailer gains by graduating from a second generation YouTube-centric program to a comprehensive third generation program.

This post is the first in a three-part series about the usage of YouTube regarding video commerce.  First, we will analyze the strengths and weaknesses of Internet Retailer Top 500 companies and the way in which they are currently leveraging YouTube.  Next, we will delve into YouTube’s optimal place within a video commerce program.  Last, we will explain the advantages of graduating from YouTube to a video commerce solution like Liveclicker.

Part One – Usage of YouTube by Internet Retailer Top 500 companies

Since August of 2008, when it surpassed Yahoo’s traffic numbers, YouTube has been the 2^nd most popular search engine in the world.  By May of 2011, the site was tallying 3 billion video views per day and its Promoted Videos program was developing into a formidable advertising strategy. In the days when Yahoo was the #2 search engine, online retailers routinely devoted significant search engine optimization and pay-per-click management resources toward ensuring their products were easily found on both Google and Yahoo.  Now, in this next generation of search, many retailers seem to be dropping the ball completely when it comes to leveraging the second most popular search engine to drive traffic back to their product pages.  A 2009 Forrester Research study found that “less than 20% of marketers were inserting keywords in the filenames of the videos on their site,” but Liveclicker’s 2011 study of YouTube usage by the Internet Retailer Top 500 found three additional systemic issues for ecommerce organizations to improve.  (We will make the full study available on Liveclicker.com next month.)

1. Lack of video content

There are certainly some anomalies among the Internet Retailer Top 500, with media-rich organizations like the National Football League, Public Broadcasting Service, the National Basketball League, Home Shopping Network, QVC and World Wrestling Entertainment on the list.  However, even after we filter out those companies, we find that the average member of the Internet Retailer Top 500 has posted 96 videos on YouTube.  Yet, more than half of the IR Top 500 companies have a product catalog consisting of over 10,000 SKU’s.  Clearly, product videos have not been as big a priority for these retail giants as expected. The chart below breaks the Internet Retailer Top 500 companies into ranges based on the number of videos posted on their YouTube channels.  160 of them (32%) are sharing less than 10 videos, 76 of which have no YouTube channel at all.  Of the retailers without a YouTube channel, a few are ranked among the top 100 and they have well-developed and well-funded search optimization programs for Google.  We found that a couple of these companies actually had video content posted on their Facebook pages, meaning that they had not taken the mere 30 minutes needed to set up a YouTube account and post those same videos in order to earn some traction on the world's #2 search engine.

2. Lack of promotion

Our analysis also found that many Internet Retailer Top 500 companies have done a poor job of optimizing and promoting their videos.  For example, 17 of the top 100 retailers on the Internet have 20 or fewer YouTube subscribers and 32 of the IR Top 500 have accumulated less than 1,000 views since their channel was created.  Compare that to YouTube superstars like Tiger Direct (more than 86,000,000 views), ThinkGeek (more than 35,000,000 views), Apple Computer (more than 29,000,000 views) and Lowes (almost 16,000,000 views), and the lack of video marketing is highlighted. Another way to analyze the data is to look at average views per video.  It is in this category where 25 IR Top 500 companies have tallied less than 100 views per video while retailers like Tiffany & Company (more than 207,000 views per video), Folica (more than 192,000 views per video), Forever21 (more than 178,000 views per video) and LEGO (more than 119,000 views per video) have excelled.

After running the inaugural Santa Barbara International Marathon which I blogged about last December, I felt like I still had some room for improvement on my personal record of 3:03:24.  Santa Barbara's hilly 24th mile, combined with my tight IT band and lack of training left me feeling like I could shave off a couple of minutes someday.  So, I searched for a target race for the Fall of 2010, hoping my 9th marathon would be my best.  I wanted an October race, because I had some friends who had not yet qualified for Boston 2011, and we knew it would fill up by November this year.  I also don't enjoy training on cold, dark Winter mornings and I wanted to be able to enjoy the holiday season this year without having an impending race looming over my head.  So, a group of us took a chance on the inaugural Camarillo Marathon scheduled for October 3, 2010.

During the past week, I had the opportunity to take a bittersweet trip to Kentucky for Ironman Louisville. The journey left me with a mixture of pride and sadness because it marked the end of my stint as a coach for Team in Training’s Ironteam group. I was extremely proud of our athletes at Vineman 140.6, Ironman Canada and Ironman Louisville, and it was difficult to step away from my role as one of their leaders.

I have now attended four 140.6-mile triathlons, twice as a participant (once completing the full distance and once as a member of a relay) and twice as a coach. Seeing these events from every angle brings an interesting perspective to the accomplishment of becoming an Ironman. Each race is unique, and it is almost impossible to compare one with another. A person’s finishing time at Ironman Florida is, in no way, a predictor of how he/she might perform at Ironman St. George. The courses, logistics and weather conditions make each long course triathlon its own adventure.

Although Ironman Louisville is the most popular event of its kind (there were more than 2,900 registrants this year), I was unimpressed with its logistics. Registration for 2011 opened this morning, and I’m sure it will sell out soon, but I would not recommend IM Louisville to any triathletes looking for an A-race. Here were some issues I noticed:

• Many of the Ironman courses have unpredictable weather conditions, but Kentucky in late August (except for an anomaly year in 2009) is fairly consistently hot and humid. The heat index took its toll, not just on the amateur athletes hoping to complete the race, but on most of the professional triathletes as well. This year, the high temperature was 96 degrees and the humidity peaked at 65% . There were thousands of people doing long, unplanned walks on the marathon course and 388 people (15% of those who began the swim) had to drop out. If I’m going to do 140.6 miles, I’d rather do it when I’m not in danger of heat stroke.
• The time-trial swim start is problematic for various reasons. First, there are people haphazardly jumping off of docks into the Ohio River , practically on top of each other. Second, the clock starts at 7:00am, and only those athletes who are toward the front of the mile-long swim line are able to begin their swim at that time. This means that everybody else gets less than the full 17 hours to complete the race before the 12:00am cutoff, and the people at the front of the line have to get down to the swim start around 3:00am to reserve their spot.
• The bathroom situation before the race was problematic. In a non-wetsuit swim that begins on shore, almost every athlete will have the need to make a pitstop before 7:00am. Add 2,500 people, a long wait in line, and lots of hydration, and the 15-20 port-a-potties near the beginning of the line were too meager for the demand. With gross revenues from this race in the millions, it would seem like a simple gesture for the race director to alleviate this problem with more port-a-potty rentals.
• The swim course itself has issues. The cleanliness of the Ohio River is certainly questionable (as one local person said to us this morning: “Um, we don’t swim in the Ohio River, you know…) and, with water temperatures in the mid-80’s, the heat can be an issue for some people. The course also converges through a narrow channel where more than 2,500 people are trying to pass each other, which can make the non-wetsuit swim more brutal than a mass start through that section. Furthermore, the swim start is three-quarters of a mile from the transition area, which means that everybody has to walk down there after tending to their bikes at 5:00am.
• The bike course begins with a short, 200-foot stretch of path from the mount line to a sharp left turn onto River Road. The turn is well-marked, but not necessarily wide, and there is a significant lip between the path and the road. What this means is there are packs of people all trying to negotiate the turn at the same time, and when they encounter the lip, many seat-mounted bottle cages were launching water bottles onto the road. Although the volunteers were doing their best to pick up these projectiles as they rolled onto the street, I watched at least 30 bottles cause near-collisions during the 45 minutes in which I was there. It would seem like something could be done about the lip, if not the width of the turn.
• This year, there were mishaps on the bike course. A large truck blocked a narrow road in which cyclists were riding in both directions. There was a shortage of water, leading to a complete outage at some aid stations. There is also automobile traffic in both directions on a lot of the course, causing a potentially scary situation for the participants.
• The run course is heralded as being historic and scenic because it passes by Churchill Downs, but really it cuts through a sketchy part of town which requires an army of police officers to ensure the safety of the racers. I appreciated the fact that it didn’t have the elevation gains I faced at St. George and I thought the sections on the bridge and through Fourth Street Live were remarkable, but the overall impression of the run course that I got was anything but scenic.
• The finish line is roughly a mile away from the transition area , and there is a stipulation that bikes must be picked up by 12:30am. This prohibits a 16-17 hour participant from reaching his/her bike in time without having a friend or family member to help him/her. That last thing someone wants to do after finishing an Ironman is walking to take care of his/her bike, but when the journey is more than a mile each way (including a few flights of stairs), that is simply tortuous.
• We had a few people on our team who needed medical support, and those that arrived after 12:15am were turned away. I had two participants that were unable to receive the IV’s that they needed (they were told to find a local hospital). I am not a race director and I don’t have any statistics to support this statement, but I would assume that there were a lot of people who finished later at night who needed more medical attention than their faster counterparts. Wouldn’t it make sense to stay open later to ensure the safety of the participants?

Overall, I appreciated the event and I believe that the Ironman brand stands for a high-quality experience, but I was unimpressed with Ironman Louisville as compared to the other races I have experienced and heard about. Perhaps it would make sense to move the race to a nearby lake where a cleaner swim, closer transition area, and safer run course could be laid out? As long as people still fly into Louisville and stay in Louisville hotels, I’m sure the race could retain its name and the city’s tourism bureau could still benefit. That said, I certainly don’t plan to sign up for Ironman Louisville and I will advise my friends to avoid it as well.

As I write this, thousands of idiots across the country are standing in line, waiting to buy the newly-released iPhone 4.  I think one of my friends put it best when he asked rhetorically: "Standing in line for two days to get the new iPhone?  How about spending that time volunteering at a homeless shelter instead?"  He makes a great point.  After all, the same phone will still be available in a week or two when the lines are shorter and less time can be wasted.  Trust me...no matter how early you get your phone, someone will beat you to it, and nobody will care about his/her timely purchase either.

I'm a big fan of the teachings of the late Jim Rohn, who talked about the "seasons" which we encounter in life and how we can anticipate and prepare for them.  In his speeches, he exemplified the busy nature of ants during the Summer as they prepare for the upcoming Winter and he talked about the need that farmers have for shifting the balance of their lives during the Fall in order to maximize the short duration of the harvest.  Simply put, he tried to help people understand that we shouldn't be surprised by the cyclical nature of the world and our priorities can be aligned with some of the environmental factors which we know we will face in the future.  He also talked about balancing one's family life with their personal, professional, civic and other priorities, and how it is okay to borrow from a particular role if that shift is temporary and reparations are made later.  For example, a focused entrepreneur might need to tell his/her children that he/she will be less available during the launch of his/her business, but he/she needs to let his/her family know when that time and care will be repaid afterward.